We were extremely excited to see news about the Urban Farm Bicycle Tour event appear in our inbox a couple of weeks ago. We asked Leslie Luciano, Community Relations Manager at Bicycle Sport Shop a couple of questions for us about the event, and her answers are below:
Perhaps you could just describe Bicycle Sport Shop’s involvement in this project, and how the genesis for the idea came about?
Marla Camp of Edible Austin Magazine approached BSS about producing a cycling tour that would highlight our local urban farms, which would take place during Austin’s Eat Local Week, being held December 6-13th. Bicycle Sport Shop, in its mission to grow a healthy community one bike at a time had just hired me in a newly created position as their Community Relations Manager. This position serves as an extension to our promotions and marketing department, with an emphasis in community outreach, working with schools, Safe Routes committees, and those government agencies working to change the infrastructure of our community to embrace alternative transportation, and to nurture a healthier community.
This Tour was my first “baby”, so to speak! Our hope for this Tour was to bring awareness to sustainable living practices, local urban farms, community gardens, and the accessibility of organic produce grown right here in our communities. We also wanted to bring awareness to alternative transportation and the ease at which one could travel to these farms, and gardens. Marla has been a tremendous partner, and support, as well as the folks at Urban Routes Youth Launch, which is the beneficiary of all funds raised. Sari, at Sustainable Foods has also been a wonderful support. We hope to include more of the Community Gardens in future Tours.
How do you see the relationship between local eating and sustainable transportation like cycling?
Local eating is one component of many for a sustainable economy, as is cycling. They go hand in hand. By eating locally, we give back locally, and by cycling as an alternative to driving we give back globally. If we could only take that 700 billion bailout, and pour it into our communities, altering the infrastructure, building parks, and enhancing opportunities for alternative transportation, we could begin healing from the inside out. We hope to get people on their bikes who don’t necessarily consider themselves cyclists. We don’t want cycling to be intimidating. As kids, we rode bikes everywhere and never once thought ourselves to be cyclists. It was a means to get from point A to B, and more than that….it was FUN! That is what we hope everyone involved in this Tour will feel. …That joy of riding, the joy of exploring, and the thrill of experiencing something that shouldn’t be foreign to us. These farms and gardens are just a pedal away.
In a future post, we will have an interview with Marla Camp, Editor of Edible Austin Magazine.
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on Nov 27th, 2008 at 1:01 am
We hope to get people on their bikes who don’t necessarily consider themselves cyclists. We don’t want cycling to be intimidating. As kids, we rode bikes everywhere and never once thought ourselves to be cyclists.